The Ultimate Fighter: Team Lesnar vs. Team dos Santos got off to a stumbling start last week.

For the first time since his mixed martial arts crossover, you could argue that a Brock Lesnar event failed to live up to its hype. Luckily, I'll define the "event" as the entire TUF season and that means the 13th is very much a work in progress.

Nevertheless, last week's installment was a snoozer.

Instead of the fight-in round where contestants face each other for a spot in the house, we got assessment sessions and then our first bout between what were already housemates.

The move back to the original format didn't really bother me—those qualifying scraps are rarely the most compelling action and usually feature two random athletes who nobody knows/cares about anyway.

No big loss there.

However, the lay 'n' pray-fest we witnessed between early coach-favorite Shamar Bailey and Nordin "Fists of Tangier "Asrih was an ugly affair.

It was certainly not the way to kick off the season, at least not if you read between the lines of UFC president Dana White's post-fight comment.

Also adding gray to the silver lining was Myles Jury's knee injury, suffered while Junior dos Santos was evaluating him. Jury seemed like he might be one to watch as the tournament developed, yet he's headed home with shredded knee ligaments.

Of course, the good news is that Episode 2 has arrived and promises to get this baby back on track.

As usual, Bleacher Report will be live blogging the show with results and reactions if you can't get to a television. Check back at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT when the action starts.